Modeling the Size Dependence of Specific Heat Capacity and Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Metallic Nanocrystals

Abstract

At mesoscale, materials always exhibit a variety of novel properties that are completely different from those of bulk. In this work, the size (D) dependence functions of specific heat capacity C_p(D) and thermal expansion coefficient α(D) for metallic nanocrystals is built. The proposed model shows a good agreement as compared with the available experimental an simulation data of metal nanocrystals. Both C_p(D) and α(D) increase following the drop of D. In addition, it is found that the ratio of the solid/liquid interface energy γ_sl to surface stress f dominate the size dependence of C_p(D) and α(D), and this influence of γ_sl/f on C_p(D) and α(D) become greater as D decrease.